Asian Games 2023: India win three silvers in athletics on Day 9; roller skating teams, paddlers win bronze medals

India stretched their medal tally to 60 on Day 9 of the 19th Asian Games on Monday, winning three silver and four bronze.

Read | Asian Games 2023 Latest Medal Tally

Though their performance wasn’t as dominant as it was on Sunday, in which India won 15 medals with a vast majority of them from athletics, India did have a good day in office on Day 9.

Track and field representatives continued to shine as they took credit for all three silver medals won on the day, while India also made its mark in the field of roller skating by winning two bronze medals.

Read | Indian medal winners in Hangzhou Asian Games

India also won a historic bronze in table tennis women’s doubles competition.

Here’s a quick recap of how the Indians fared on Monday at Hangzhou:

Roller skating: India win two bronze

India’s roller skating teams in men’s and women’s 3000m relay disciplines clinched bronze medals at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Monday.

The women’s team of Sanjana Bathula, Karthika Jagadeeswaran, Heeral Sadhu and Aarathy Kasturi Raj opened the country’s account on the ninth day of competitions, finishing with a timing of 4:34.861s.

The Indian quartet finished behind gold medallists Chinese Taipei (4:19.447) and South Korea (4:21.146).

“Winning bronze will definitely open up a lot of opportunities for us because we are not on the priority list in India. Sadly, this isn’t an Olympic sport,” Aarthy, a doctor and wife of Indian cricketer Sandeep Warrier, said after the win.

Not long after the women, the men’s team of Aryanpal Singh Ghuman, Anandkumar Velkumar, Siddhant Kamble and Vikram Ingale then sealed a second bronze with a timing of 4:10.128 seconds.

Chinese Taipei (4:05.692) and South Korea (4:05.702) again took the top-two spots here.

For most of the Indian skaters it was a maiden Asian Games appearance.

17-year-old Sadhu, who had finished a creditable seventh in the women’s 1000m Point-Elimination race, said, “This is my first Asian Games. I’m just 17, and I’m really happy we got a team medal.”

The 15-year-old Karthika hoped this medal would encourage others to take up the sport.

“It was really great, it was my first experience at the Asian Games and it is going to be the best experience for me,” Karthika said.

India’s roller skaters had won two bronze medals at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou in men’s free skating and pairs skating events.

Table tennis: Sutirtha-Ayhika Mukherjee settle for historic bronze

Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee’s giant-slaying run in women’s doubles table tennis ended with a historic bronze medal after the Indian duo lost the closely-fought women’s doubles semifinal 3-4 to North Korean pairing of Suyong Cha and Sugyong Pak. The Indian team lost 3-4 (11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 2-11).

Sutirtha and Ayhika Mukherjee had caused a massive upset in the quarter-final when they beat the World no 2 Chinese team of Meng Chen and Yidi Wang.

“We failed to show the patience which they did. We were a little nervous in the last game and they attacked well to finish the points,” said Sutirtha.

“But we are happy for a podium finish, the first in women’s doubles,” added Ayhika.

In 2018, India had made history by picking up men’s team and mixed doubles bronze.

Archers make quarters in all six team events

Indian archers made it into the quarter-finals of all six teams events. The Indians played five team elimination rounds and dropped just one set on the way to their respective last-eight matches.

First, it was the top-seeded compound mixed team of Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who showed the way as they dropped just one point from 16 arrows to eliminate UAE’s Amna Alawadhi and Mohammed Binamro 159-151.

Then, the Indian recurve mixed pair duo of Atanu Das and Ankita Bhakat were at their resilient best and overcame a first-set deficit to defeat Malaysia in a three-setter.

In compound men’s team event, the second-seeded Indians trio of Ojas, Abhishek Verma and Prathamesh Jawkar thrashed 15th seed Singapore (Woon Teng NG, Lee Chung Hee Alan, Jun Hui Goh) 235-219.

The compound men’s team is pitted against lower-ranked Bhutan in the quarters and will likely face the third seeded Chinese Taipei in the semifinals.

The unfancied women’s recurve team of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Simranjeet Kaur also shone through, ousting 12th seeded Thailand.

Athletics: India win three silver medals; Tejaswin leading in decathlon

The Indian and track and field once again rose to the occasion at the ongoing Asian Games, contributing to the country’s medal rush with three silver and and a bronze medal on Monday.

Parul Chaudhary and Priti Lamba secured silver and bronze medals respectively in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, unheralded Ancy Sojan made a grand entry on the big stage with a long jump silver, while the 4x400m mixed relay team got a fortuitous upgrade to second spot due to ‘lane infringement’, on an eventful day at the Asian Games on Monday.

In 3000m steeplechase, Parul clocked 9:27.63 seconds, which was more than nine seconds behind the Bahrain runner, who took the top podium finish in 9:18.28 seconds, a new Games record.

Though Parul also breached the Asian Games record, it was nowhere close to her national record and personal best of 9:15.31 clocked at the World Championships in Budapest, which helped her qualify for the Paris Olympics, in August.

Compatriot Priti finished a good 16 seconds behind Parul, clocking a personal best 9:43.32 seconds to win the bronze in a close finish with Bahrain runner Mekonen Tigest Getent, who timed 9:43.71 seconds.

In women’s long jump, Ancy breached her personal best twice and leapt 6.63 metres to bag the silver behind Shiqi Xiong of China, whose jump of 6.73 metres helped her claim the yellow metal.

The other Indian in the fray, Shaili Singh looked crestfallen, finishing a disappointing fifth with an effort of 6.48 metres. Such was Shaili’s — the U-20 World Championships silver medallist — plight that she looked on the verge of an emotional meltdown before her last two attempts.

The quartet of Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Vithya Ramraj, Rajesh Ramesh and Subha Venkatesan then clocked 3:14.34 seconds in mixed team 4x400m relay to win a bronze medal. But, to their joy, the Sri Lankan quartet — which had beaten the favourites to the second spot by a fraction of a second with a time of 3:14.25 seconds — was disqualified due to ‘lane infringement’

The gold was won by Bahrain runners, who timed 3:14.02. Following the upgrade, Kazakhstan who had finished fourth bagged the bronze, clocking a season’s best of 3:24.85 seconds.

In men’s 200m, India’s Amlan Borgohain finished a distant sixth in 20.98 seconds.

Meanwhile, Tejaswin Shankar ended the day on top of the men’s decathlon standings with 4260 points to his name.

Shankar remains ahead of China’s Qihao Sun (4010) and Thailand’s Suttisak Singkhon (4004) at the halfway stage of the decathlon event, winning the long jump, high jump and 400m events along the way.

While the 24-year-old collected 903 points in long jump with his effort of 7.37m along with 830 from 400m with a timing of 49.67 seconds, his most productive event of the day was his pet event of high jump in which he collected 1002 points for his 2.21m jump.

The remaining five events in men’s decathlon will take place on Tuesday starting with 110m hurdles.

Elsewhere, Vithya Ramraj equalled PT Usha’s 400m hurdle national record, which was set in 1984, with a personal best effort of 55.42s to top her heat and directly qualify for the women’s final.

Ravi Sinchal Kaveramma Theethamada, however, missed out after finishing fifth in her heat with an effort of 58.62s.

In men’s 400m hurdles, Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan and Yashas Palaksha qualified for the final after finishing in second position with a timing of 49.28s and 49.61s in their respective heats.

Sandesh Jesse and Sarvesh Anil Kushare produced identical scores of 2.10m to qualify for men’s high jump final.

In men’s 800m heat, Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath finished at the top of his heat with a timing of 1:46:79s, while Krishnan Kumar was second in his heat with a timing of 1:49:45s. Both qualified for the finals.

Hockey: India men thrash Bangladesh 12-0

kipper Harmanpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh slammed a hat-trick each as India mauled Bangladesh 12-0 to storm into the semifinals of the men’s hockey competition.

Harmanpreet (2nd, 4th, 32nd minutes) converted three penalty corners, while Mandeep (18th, 24th, 46th) also found the net thrice as India remained unbeaten in Pool A.

Moments of the Match
India vs Bangladesh
19th Asian Game Hangzhou 2022 Men’s Hockey Competition#AsianGames#Hangzhou2022#asiahockey pic.twitter.com/Q1WwLPz9Wi

— Asian Hockey Federation (@asia_hockey) October 2, 2023

Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (23rd), Amit Rohidas (28th), Abhishek (41st, 57th), Nilakanta Sharma (47th) and Gurjant Singh (56th) were the other goal getters for India.

India will play the second-best team of Pool B in the semifinal on Wednesday.

With inputs from PTI